Drake Street is a street in Rochdale. It is much like many other streets in other towns across Britain. It is also unique.

Drake Street is not the main shopping street of Rochdale and is therefore not populated by shops from the major national and international retail brands. It is also a street which has been in decline as a retail area, yet one which retains much of the residual character that has marked it from earlier, more prosperous, times.

The street is characterised by a number of features. It has many individual locally owned shops, small areas of dereliction, a patchwork of signage and advertising, strange leftovers from long gone social activities and visible signs of current ones. Many different needs and opportunities are represented along its length.

In 2001 change was coming to Drake Street. A programme of significant intervention aimed at bringing prosperity and new investment. As this process takes place the story that Drake Street represents will change and along with the new prosperity, many of the less valued stories will lose their physical presence and disappear into memory.

This project aimed to look at the detail of Drake Street, to record the signs and structures of a topography at the end of one stage of its life. To do this not with false nostalgia but to map the street and its life and to represent this back to its inhabitants. To do this in collaboration with its inhabitants and to support a future of Drake Street that is conscious of its legacy.

The Drake Street Observatory was commissioned by Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council and was made possible through support from SRB 5 and The Rochdale Development Agency.